Why is there so much confusion about psu's?

[Fat Cat11997]

Im planning to build a pc with a 7700x and a 4070, but all this psu stuff is confusing me. I've heard things like psu tier list, "you need an A tier psu for high end pc's," and even different rails that all have different voltages and ive gotten really confused. Im planning to get this psu: https://www.microcenter.com/product/632808/corsair-rmx-series-rm850x-850-watt-80-plus-gold-atx-fully-modular-power-supply  for my build

[8tg]

TLDR there’s a whole bunch of nerds who haven’t seen daylight in 15 years who do nothing but measure and compare power supplies all day, and they rank all the mainstream power supplies on an ever changing tier list.

 

The intention was to bring the complicated quality dynamics of consumer power supplies to the uneducated consumer in a clear and concise way to make it easier for the uneducated consumer to choose a power supply.

Even if it’s not on the list, you see the qualities that get a power supply certain tiers on the list and can use that information to judge what you choose.

 

How it has actually come to play out is those absolute basement dwellers parade their tier list in a sense of consumer elitism, taking the approach that you MUST buy an item from the higher end of the tier list, you as a consumer aren’t smart enough to make your own decisions. You are not allowed to weigh the realistic use case and expectations of your system, your psu must be the best or better than that. 
And in order to convince people of this, there’s been years now of a demonization campaign against lesser known or lower tier power supplies, with no consideration to their real use case, and actual consumer concerns.

 

An RM850x is a very good psu. You do not need to think about it any further than that. It is more than adequate for your build, and will allow for upgrades in the future if needed.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

32 minutes ago, 8tg said:

And in order to convince people of this, there’s been years now of a demonization campaign against lesser known or lower tier power supplies, with no consideration to their real use case, and actual consumer concerns.

can confirm for myself

 

i have a dazumba 450w now 13yo and even if its a meh psu (360w effective cause 12v = 30a) it still works just fine though i have retired it from being my main psu cause it isnt enough for my x58 oc shenanigans even if its just pushing ddr3 3200+ and not core clocks

 

ive also got a dsa ii 550w bronze (eff 504w) and a tundra 700w (eff 648w) both half decent psus and they also work just fine, the dsa ii was 12$ and the tundra was 16$ used, both also work flawlessly and the tundra is my current main psu

 

yes there are garbage psus out there but most of the time even lesser known psus are good enough or more than good enough to do the job, even those oem grey boxes with tiny fans usually on office prebuilts ppl claim will explode do their job just fine as long as you arent putting gpus on them or hardware that draws lots of power due to the pathetic 12v rail

 

as for measure of quality on the psu itself itd be the 12v rail, over 100w below the psus rated wattage and its a trash unit but within that its acceptable, another measure of quality would be checking customer reviews if available, and for buying used psus <7yo psus are preffered. this is the criteria i use for buying my used psus and no issues so far aside from age related (like sata power connectors breaking on my dazumba unit) since i never pay attention to psu age myself =p

 

the tierlist itself is good albiet slightly misleading since theres no noticable diff between a and b tier but the attitude surrounding the list can burn in hell

[8tg]

7 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

the tierlist itself is good albiet slightly misleading since theres no noticable diff between a and b tier but the attitude surrounding the list can burn in hell

It’s also just this weird mentality over anything old. I’ve genuinely had people tell me I shouldn’t use my 2018 rm1000x I have lying around because it’s an old model.

 

Or the amount of incredibly mad comments I’ve gotten over using a 20 year old apevia aspire in my dream xp build. Oh my god people hate the entire idea of a 20 year old psu.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

5 minutes ago, 8tg said:

It’s also just this weird mentality over anything old. I’ve genuinely had people tell me I shouldn’t use my 2018 rm1000x I have lying around because it’s an old model.

well i guess we know where those ~50$ 850w rm(x) and equivalent units come from =p

 

10 years is the bare minimum id expect from all psus hence why i bash any <10 year warranty psus, 15-17 would be tops or where id expect em to drop dead or at the very least a reccomendation to replace

 

6 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Or the amount of incredibly mad comments I’ve gotten over using a 20 year old apevia aspire in my dream xp build. Oh my god people hate the entire idea of a 20 year old psu.

and god damn thats a long lasting psu

 

made before the capacitor apocalypse of the mid 2000s or something? all i know is there was some sort of issue with mid 2000s capacitors being complete garbage and destroying electronics that would have otherwise been fine, but i am too young to have seen it for myself

 

i mean it is ancient hardware but thats a given since its gotta be period correct and i think some really old platforms well before my time mainly used the 5v rail so a new psu wouldnt suffice cause itd trigger ocp, if it still works id just continue to use it till it dies, replacement advisory would be basically useless here especially if the platform you are using needs lots of 5v since you are actually stuck to old psus witth strong 5v rails

 

besides no issue with running it into the ground anyways cause most psus dont go off with a bang which is literally what most of these psu eliteists say for old psus, maybe if it was a china psu cause i certainly had one of those generic unbranded black boxes blow up on me before but never anything else not even those grey boxes with a small fans with pathetic 12v rails and horrible voltage regulation if you overload them with power hungry hardware, most psus will nust die peacefully and just outright stop working, probably just wont turn on at all even if you press the power button or short ps on though i havent had any psus die on me yet

[8tg]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

i mean it is ancient hardware but thats a given since its gotta be period correct

Pretty much this, its the dream xp build, so it uses an apevia aspire, simple as

it’s see-through, I will not use any other power supply because they’re not see-through 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

9 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Pretty much this, its the dream xp build, so it uses an apevia aspire, simple as

it’s see-through, I will not use any other power supply because they’re not see-through 

you could totally mod another psu but itd probably not be as clean as that apevia

 

why dont they ever do stuff like this nowadays? just the same old monotonous "clean" design or the overly edgy gamer aesthetics with rainbow puke and sharp edges all over the place

 

now im starting to want to make my own see through psu =p  i mean it is just swapping the board to a diff case and soldering on another powerbutton and mains in, and id totally have a use for it too so i can integrate leds to know if theres still power in the psu since my 700w tundra doesnt make a noise when all its power is gone like my dazumba 450w, itd be cool to have lighting inside the psu itself to see if the psu has power in it

 

ok now i really want to make one now that i think about it so maybe ill just shelve this idea till i have some money to blow and a better psu id like to mod, maybe itd make for an interesting youtube vid